Mad Paulie vs. Yukio Naya vs. Keigo Nakamura – 3-Way Match
First time seeing Yukio Naya in action and I feel like there’s potential with this kid. Giant hoss-child that can throw a nasty kick – yes please. Unfortunately, he didn’t get to show much more than that because this was over in less than 5. Rookie Nakamura getting ignored by the two big monsters was a fun comedy bit but that’s about it. *1/2
Toru Owashi, Naomi Yoshimura & Mizuki Watase vs. Kazusada Higuchi, Yukio Sakaguchi & Saki Akai
Dug this one a lot. Eruption seemed to click a lot better with the down-to-earth Disaster Box trio here than with the flippier All Out team from last month. They integrated the intergender trope seamlessly by turning Saki in the underdog babyface of the match – a smart move. Watching her try to fend off the bulkier opposition only to be met with limited (but realistic) selling was a good time and got the crowd super invested. Lots of fun team work from both sides including Higuchi weaponizing Akai. Also need to point out that young Yoshimura has a judo throw of pure death that’s up there with Koji Iwamoto’s best stuff. ***
MIRANDA GORDY is here and she means business. I think.
Danshoku Dino, Yasu Urano & Super Sasadango Machine vs. Shinya Aoki, Hiroshi Yamato & Kazuki Hirata
The best use of Danshoku Dino I’ve seen in a while. They completely removed themselves from the usual rapey gay panic comedy and went into pure twilight zone territory with all seven participants (including referee Matsui) coming out in Sasadango Machine masks and creating instant mass confusion. As you might imagine, shenanigans ensued and a good time was had by all.
HARASHIMA & Yuki Ueno vs. CIMA & Soma Takao vs. Masahiro Takanashi & Makoto Oishi – 3-Way Match
I’d bet a lot of money that CIMA had a huge hand in laying out this little number. Light-hearted Dragon Gate slash lucha vibe with intricate sequences blending in nicely with recurring comedy spots. It came off more like an exhibition than a serious professional wrestling match for the soul of Dramatic Dream Team, but the crowd was into it. Soma Takao nicknaming himself BIMA was both a great linguistic pun and a clever way to claim alphabetical superiority over CIMA. I respect it. **3/4
Akito, Shunma Katsumata, Yuki Iino & Chihiro Hashimoto vs. Daisuke Sasaki, Tetsuya Endo, T-Hawk & El Lindaman – Elimination Match
Kind of a clusterfuck, but an enjoyable clusterfuck with plenty of memorable moments. They worked this thing at a wild pace and everyone managed to get a bit of the spotlight. Iino and Chichiro’s haka people’s elbow spot is still all kinds of terrible but I love everything else about them. Not only are they adept at house cleaning and other beef rampages, but their comic timing is tremendous. Case in point: Chihiro’s ‘’bruh?’’ face after getting sacrificed by her man. Otherwise, Lindaman was the clear MVP here. For the general hilarity he brought to the table, but more specifically for that spot where he was throwing young boys at Chihiro like some kind of midget Lance Archer. A true genius of the squared circle. ***1/4
Konosuke Takeshita vs. Chris Brookes – DDT Universal Title
A pretty wild mix of inventive videogame wrestling and head-scratching indie bullshit. Both of these guys clearly have a lot of big ideas, but one of them is better at executing them than the other. I dug all the ZSJ-Lite sections of the match with Brookes going after the arm via the Power of Britwres, but all of his big indie highspots (hanging footstomp over two Korakuen rails, the Ace Crusher Outta’ Nowhere counters) required so much cooperative dumbing down that I kept disconnecting from the action.
Takeshita did a lot better with the This Is Awesome content: both his crazy-ass hammerlocked Tiger Driver Bomb and El Generico-esque Air Raid Crash into the turnbuckle came out of well thought-out wrestling sequences and felt semi-organic. What seemed less organic was the NXT-esque escalation during the ending stretch where the sudden spike in hate from both guys felt forced and borderline cringey. The transition from GIF-based pro-wrestling to OK now we are spitting on each other and throwing middle fingers was almost humorous. I mean, I did laugh at Takeshita’s ‘’FACK YOU BITCH!’’ but I don’t know if this was the intent. ***1/2
Masato Tanaka © vs. MAO – KO-D Openweight Title
Some might not want to hear this, but MAO has the same smartass meme-wrestling vibe as a lot of prominent American indie (or even AEW) wrestlers. There’s an ironic detachment to his schtick that I’m sometimes struggling with, but his athletic feats and pure raw talent are pretty much undeniable. The genius of this match is that wrestling mastermind Masato Tanaka pushed back against the goofier side of MAO and forced him into a more traditional babyface role, making him so much more relatable and sympathetic in the process.
After watching MAO come back from that king-sized Tanaka ass whooping, even his wonky duck box spots and ref bump trickery became somewhat tolerable. This stuff was now part of the story they were telling: MAO’s high-flying wackiness clashing with Tanaka’s hard-nosed physicality. Some of the late-stage MAO offense was just unreal: 2nd-rope Shooting Star Press to the back, a massive Pyramid Driver variant and the most incredibly-timed CAPOEIRA FLIP (!?) to avoid the Sliding D. Lots of very, very good wrestling was had.
Tanaka’s now in a direct race with Susumu Yokosuka for most compelling title reign of the year, doing exactly what Susumu did with Francesco Akira and turning me into a MAO fan. I told myself I would never use this terrible twitterspeak but… you truly love to see it. ****
